Mummy's secrets
by Just by Being Here
Summary: When Rue and Cinna go digging in the meadow they discover a skull but what does their mother know about it, and why is she so terrified when a secret admirer leaves her a single red rose? Surely, that's a good thing?


**AN: apparently your meant to do this weird thing called a disclaimer to make your story look ugly but i want mine to look beautiful so here goes:**

**DISCO-CLAIMER: All discos belong to me along with the Hunger Games trilogy. ( I was lying, for the thick people out there)**

**Well that went well. NOT. Now onward before I embarrass myself further.**

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Rue ran along the meadow.

The waist deep grass whipping at her bare legs but not slowing her down in the slightest.

She was heading towards a group of trees that had once been clustered around a oasis but were now standing alone with no other tree or water source in sight. It was shaped roughly like a light bulb with thick bushes and small stout trees fighting for dominance over the ground and sky respectively. At the bottom end where the wires would be or where the bulb attaches to the ceiling a walnut tree grew.

Actually there were two trees but they had twisted around each other in knots so intricate that they couldn't possibly have grown like that naturally however about 3 meters up they stopped abruptly and separated one growing up towards the sky while the other lent over and grew parallel to the ground.

Once her mummy had helped her make a swing but then it had snapped and the wind had blown the two pieces of rope into identical impossible knots. After all since when could the wind tie nooses? Her mummy had led her away laughing and saying that they would try again tomorrow but when tomorrow came, and her mummy had seen the knots she had screamed and ran leaving her five year old daughter alone in an empty meadow crying, thinking she was unwanted.

Now the only things left were the two pieces of torn dirty rope. Rue had tried to get them down for weeks afterwards in an attempt to get her mummy to come back but had come home every day with sore hands and a sad face as her mummy continued to refuse to go down to the meadow until they were gone.

It was strange how her mummy wasn't scared even when some wolves had once come to check if their picnic was edible but was scared of two small knots; but she was used to it.

Most of the adults were scared of strange things. One man was scared of leather she had once asked but as soon as she said the word he had frozen and hadn't responded to anything until Auntie Meg had come in and gently ran her hands across his back gently tracing something and repeating the words "It's OK" again and again and again.

She hadn't asked anyone about their fears ever again.

But her weeks of attempting to untie the knot had lead to one good thing: she had discovered that the trees in the bulb as she now called it due to its shape had somehow managed to grow an almost perfect maze of pathways among the trees. Here and there there were small balconies that gave you a view over the meadow and one main one where the two walnut trees separated.

Rue reached her destination and climbed up the walnut tree and saw her six year old brother Cinna lazily swinging upside down from a branch a couple of meters above the main balcony. 'Cinna' she sang softly 'where are you?' she wasn't worried about about him, since she had found the bulb they had practically lived there only leaving to eat and sleep and the occasional holiday/family day out to some nearby place.

Cinna suddenly reached out and grabbed the branch eyes still closed and flipped so he was hanging only with his arms. He hung there for a moment, his stocky arms easily taking the strain, suddenly he dropped and Rue watched in light amusement as he landed spider man style right on the edge of the balcony and then pretended to tightrope walk to where she was standing. She gazed at his closed eyes for a moment before they fluttered open a smile replacing his previously concentrating face.

"How was that?" he asked eagerly his grey eyes shining in the sun. They were a nice kind of grey Rue reasoned not too pale or too dark and mysterious like mummy's but a vibrant color that showed life and energy like a storm cloud playing tag. They blinked and she was snapped back to reality.

"It was really good, Cin, but you should work on where you land that was pretty close."

"OK" the six year old replied brightly. For a moment there was peace as a small summer breeze blew by then Cinna suddenly jumped and grabbed hold of the nearest strong branch then swung away screaming "Catch me if you can"

Rue laughed and threw herself after her younger brother and yelled back "I'm going to catch you" she swung after him scrambling and running along branches laughing at the adrenaline pounding through her veins. It was amazing. For those few brief seconds she was in the air she felt truly alive surrounded in dappled sunlight and the smell of fresh flowers.

After a two minutes of this she was sure where her brother was headed which was a good thing because if she was honest he all he needed was to grow a little taller and he would be better than her even though she had been doing it for longer.

She slowed down a little savoring the freedom and listening to her heart beat loudly in her ears she quickly arrived at the 'hut' a pretty big shelter that they had made to protect anything they brought to the bulb. It had taken just over a week to construct and and that hadn't included the rigorous safety checks they had put it through. Then the insulating and the waterproofing and finally the decorating. Her favorite part.

They had made several shelves on which they put interesting things they had found and made and in a corner there was a very well polished wooden table surrounded by a couple of logs. Next to the wall between the table and shelves there was a large chest of tinned food and dried fruit and nuts. In the other half of the room there were two beds covered in warm but very itchy tartan blankets with a smaller private cabinet next to each. Between them was a large fire place. It had taken longest to build because they had needed to figure out a way in which the rain would not come in and put out the fire.

They had even camped there a couple of times but only during the summer after the time that Cinna accidentally set the rug in front of the fire _on _fire, severely singing the polished floor and burning the table before either of them remembered how to put it out. It was one of the reasons that the new table was so well polished. When she arrived Cinna was digging hurriedly through the beanbags that were heaped at the foot of each bed until he found a small satchel with some large garden tools sticking out. He pulled it out with a satisfied "Yes" then turned round to address his sister.

"Lets do ar - ark -" his small face screwed up in concentration as he tried to remember the word in the story Mr Humbrian had read to him "arkolgie. Lets do some arkolgie."

Rue didn't react.

"With all the digging" he added at Rues look of blank confusion.

Her face brightened "Oh. you mean archaeology where people dig up bones and temples and stuff," she shrugged "OK" she had nothing better to do in the childless town during summer "but you wont't find anything you know that don't you" Rue added as a precaution against a crying Cinna. Something she hated with all her heart.

But Cinna was already gone his blond locks flashing in the patchy sunlight as he ran.

"We wont find anything"she repeated quietly, as if to convince herself.

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**AN: I hope you liked it, it took me long enough to spell check and especially capitalize the whole thing(willing betas head my way)Now i have some thing to ask of you it fairly simple: if you liked it, please drop a review, if you didn't like it, please drop a review, if you have no opinion, please drop a review, if you have read it, please drop a review, if you... you get the point now please, drop a review.**


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